Canadian by birth, Southern (Ontario) by the Grace of God.- yeah it's a Lynyrd Skynyrd reference

Monday, October 31, 2005

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ipods

So I came across this article and website that simply disgusted me. What it featured was a video clip of this person from Toronto (figures) who decided to purchase an Apple iPod. Now understand he didn't have the resources to do it, rather he requested donations for this project. When he gathered enough people, and it was going to cost him $400.00 he proceeded to the nearest Apple store to make the purchase. He bought a 20gig iPod. Upon purchasing the said item, he took it out of the box, in the store, and began to stomp it with his foot. Needless to say the devised was smashed into pieces. Later the video shows him leaving and then taking a hammer to the devise to wreck it even further.

I know some people are going to hate the iPod because of all the hype but really, to smash one into pieces. This is ridiculous. Then again I don't know if it is even more ridiculous that people donated money for him to do just this.

I am not including the website for obvious reasons. This sort of person simply is annoying and after he enjoys his 15 minutes of webfame, should return to his job in the fast food industry.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

U2 in Detroit

This past Tuesday I was able to enjoy my birthday present from one of my daughters, two tickets to see U2 in Detroit. It was first time to see the band live and let me say they did not disappoint. I can think of three words that can describe the concert A Maze Ing. I've heard they put on a good show, and they did. It was great, a mixture of both their classic hits, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, Where the Streets have no name and Pride to name a few. Of course this being the Vertigo tour, there were a number of songs from their new CD How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. As well, they played Beautiful Day and Miss Sarajevo which is a very moving song. Some of the unique moments; when Bono asked the crowd to show their cell phones, the place lit up. He asked everyone to text a message to this number. The number was for One.org, it's a group dedicated to AIDS works and debt relief in Africa. You could pick up a silicon bracelet, which I did. It's white and so yes I am now one of the silicon bracelet wearing people you see.

I went to the U2 website, and found the list of songs played. Here it is. We also bought a t-shirt each and I got a couple of buttons.

I also read at the website that the band will be releasing a DVD of the concert. I think I shall buy it, yes I shall.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Wired Magazine had a regular article in which people were asked what was playing on their ipods. I mentioned in an earlier blog what sort of podcasts I was listening too. I have to admit it was techie stuff, Techphile and this week in technology or TWITS. As well, Diggnation.

Now I have branched out; I listen now to: UNICEF which gives some good background on third world events, Grace to You, the podcast of the ministry of John MacArthur. He's got a great bible study radio program. Other ones are the CBC Radio3 podcast, which is a compilation of new and undiscovered Canadian talent. Then there is a neat sci-fi one called EscapePod. This gives some interviews and some readings, plus news for sci-fi geeks.

Another one I found, and this is good news for all Browncoats is the Signal a "firefly" podcast.

Understand, you don't need to have a iPod to listen to these, simply download them all to your computer and enjoy listening.

Friday, October 07, 2005

I think if I did a blog covering the RIAA and their ongoing malfeasance I would never run out of things to comment about on a daily basis.

To give the quick backgroun, the RIAA decided to sue Candy Chan for possessing pirated material and being a distributor. She claims no knowledge and told the court it was her daughter Candy that was the evil-doer. She had the handle. So immediately the RIAA went after the 12 year old girl. Here's some of the documents. They want to appoint a guardian for her during these proceedings. The end result of all this was the plantiff's motion was denied. Good for the courts, at least with Candy Chan. The matter is now, will the RIAA decide to go after Britanny or will they realize how stupid they look and how this will damage what little credibility they have with the public.

One chart for example shows that p2p file sharing has tripled since the start of the lawsuits. Good idea guys and gals, perturb your clienteles even further.

This is an example that the citizens have decided the actions of the RIAA is wrong and should be ignored.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Another one for the "Music Industry Doesn't Get it" file. Now they want to have a show down with satellite radio. In particular the fact that there is a new radio coming out that will store music. A couple of decades ago, all stereo systems came with tape players. Each one of them had a "record" button.

Now the industry wants the right to veto all technology that they deem may have a negative effect on them. This is ridiculous, no industry should have the power to control and stifle new technology. Which is exactly what they are doing. They should be thankful people still want to listen to anything they produce. Consider the difference in technology; Sony produced a sony walkman minidisc player that could be used to record or download digital music. It's a nice player, good sound, but the software is so clumsy that it's hard to do what you want. Then there is the Apple iPod, a wonderful devise that has iTunes, which is very easy to use and you can download music quickly and easily. Which is more popular? Sony's devise or Apples? Now imagine if the industry gets away with dictating technology, goodbye any improvements to the iPod because after all you can download illegal music to play on it.

Here's a quote from the article "The record industry, led by major labels, such as Vivendi Universal' (EAUG.PA),> Warner Music Group Corp (NYSE:WMG - news), EMI Group Plc (EMI.L) and Sony BMG, believe the recording capability is a clear copyright violation and could take revenue away from paid download music services". Nonsense, the satellite industry is paying for the music, it's all part of the stream, the consumer is paying for the right to listen and if that means listening a little later what is the problem.

Also the increase in contract from 80 million to 1 billion dollars, as you know Steve Jobs called the Recording Industry 'greedy'. and that's what they are. Is the recording industry so bad off that their only revenue stream is through litigation, now that's a healthy industry.

I once read that Google's revenue stream is greater then the worth of all five recording companies. Please Google, buy these clowns out and operate the industry like it is in the 21st century.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

This is a continuation of the blog from last night. Josh Wheldon may have given Sci-Fi a much needed change of direction. For too long sci-fi has been in the hands of the Star Trek franchise and the visions of Lucas and Speilberg. All of them have seemed to become devoid of ideas and quite frankly has grown tired. George Lucas probably destroyed the Star Wars series with the prequel which started poorly and never improved and Speilberg seems to want to rehash old stories and hasn't added to the equation.

Sci-Fi has had some nice additions, one thinks back to the Babylon 5 series and realize things can be good. Now Josh gives us a movie that improves both sci-fi and the westren in one deft well written movie. Certainly this is not new, since the same characteristics were obvious in the series Firefly. When I first heard about it I was sceptical, a western based in Outer Space, but with great acting and fantastic writing the series was wonderful.

Now the movie, I discovered the hope is that a trilogy will emerge from this first movie. I think it will, I also believe that if Serenity doesn't do well the first week not to worry, it will get stronger as the weeks go on. Word of mouth will drive people to see it and those who see it will go again and again. In many ways this is the New Matrix. If you remember the first Matrix and certainly the best of the three came under everyone's radar. After all it came out the same year as the first Star Wars movie and yet the Matrix got stronger while SW fan could spew enough venom and hatred towards Jar-Jar Binks. The vision of the Matrix would seem to have only appealed to the hardcore cyberpunk and yet it had a message which got into people. However then came 2 and 3, which although good movies, except for that rave scene in the cave, never could capture the essence of the first. Let's hope that same problem doesn't ruin the start of the potential trilogy. Keep the spirit of Firefly alive in the next two and this may be the best sci-fi movie trilogy of all time.

After saying all this, let me repeat, You will see Serenity and you will see it again. You will also buy Firefly the complete series on DVD and then when the movie comes out you will buy that DVD. Trust me you will.